Help and Advice

Customer Comments

Christopher Dean

I became fascinated by the guitar in my teens when I learned to play the instrument. Having been a keen guitarist and model-maker I became intrigued by the mystery of guitar making. That fascination has never left me.

I am passionate about making guitars. The transformation, as if by some form of alchemy, of beautiful but inert wood into a vibrant musical instrument with its own individual characteristics and personality fascinates and delights me. The result that I seek to achieve is a guitar that looks and sounds intuitively right in all its proportions and aspects and will exceed it’s owners expectations.

I love the process of beginning a new instrument. With a ‘picture’ of the sound I want to hear in my mind I select the right wood, tapping and flexing pieces and deciding which soundboard will work well with which back and sides. I work mainly using traditional methods, tools and materials, hand-finishing my guitars by French polishing.

Dean Cedar Guitar

I have studied great guitars such as Hauser, Santos Hernandez and Torres and their best work has inspired my own.

For me the allure of the classical guitar is best summed up by Andres Segovia, a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist who is known as the father of modern classical guitar and regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

In his is speech of acceptance at the Florida State University, after it had given him his honorary degree, he said of the guitar:

"Not only the curves but the spirit too, is highly feminine, for the guitar is the most unpredictable and leas reliable musical instrument in existence - and also the sweetest, the warmest and most delicate, whose melancholic voice awakes in our soul exquisite reveries."

I have been fortunate to have been able to study and restore old guitars from master luthiers such as Hauser I, Rubio, Friedrich, Fleta, Romanillos and others. This work and my own work with many demanding performers has enabled me to work towards creating a quality of instrument that enables the guitar to perform with equal effect whether played softly or with great force and which is balanced from the deepest bass to the highest treble note. To date I have built over 400 guitars.

Chris Dean.

Christopher Dean Studied at the London College of Furniture in Musical Instrument Technology from 1979 to 1981, worked as assistant to Paul Fischer 1983 to 1985 Establishing his own workshop in 1985.